by WILLA CATHER

Published by HOUGHTON MIFFLIN CO.

Illustrated by W.T. BENDA

U.S. First Edition

Rebound and inscribed by WHITMAN BENNETT, and dedicated to his wife

434 pages

An absolutely lovely copy of Willa Cather's classic work. 

First printing of the U.S. first edition, published in October 1918 by Houghton Mifflin Co., with the illustrations by W.T. Benda printed on glazed paper.

The book was rebound in 1956 by the former silent film producer/director and later New York bookbinder/bookseller Whitman Bennett, and is dedicated on a front endpaper to 'the girl who selected the leather and conceived the idea of the central design'. This presumably was his wife Lillias Livingston Bennett, whose initials are stamped inside the rear cover. There is also faint evidence of a pencilled inscription, since erased, on the same page.

The cover is green leather with gilt titles, and an embossed 'corncob and acorns' design on the front. The spine features a representation of a coat of arms. There is some rubbing present on the spine and on the corners.

Inside, the leather tooling around the edges features the logo 'BENNETT, N.Y.'. Green marbled endpapers. The pages are gilt-edged on all three sides. Pages are clean and tight throughout with very little evidence of foxing or age-tanning. Unlike the text of the book, the illustrations are printed on glazed paper - this only applied to the first print run.

Around the book, there is a cloth-bound 'envelope', complete with a tag to assist in removing the book from its cloth-bound, gilt-titled slipcase, which has slight wear at the corners.

Altogether a very attractive presentation of one of the great American novels.

I can supply further photos on request.